”South Sister: Wanderings on an Oregon Volcano” is about David Stockton’s love affair with a mountain.

Stockton, who has lived in Bend since 1993, has climbed South Sister numerous times and clearly has a deep appreciation for the 10,358-foot peak and the Central Oregon Cascades.

His is not a climbing guide.

Rather, Stockton includes some route information along with his own story, beginning with a childhood encounter with the mountain in a photo book (by Central Oregon photographer Ray Atkeson) to summers spent climbing and exploring it.

At 39 pages, it’s a brief, informative and nicely written paean to the most courted of the three sisters. It’s so personal that the soft cover is painstakingly hand written in Stockton’s meticulous penmanship.

”Handwriting is kind of a lost art,” said Stockton. ”Anyone can go on a word processor. I wanted to do something with my own hand.”

The slight volume includes a chapter on the ritual of climbing South Sister, a geologic overview of the mountain, a look at its cultural history, his first encounter, wanderings and a glimpse of South Sister’s volcanic underpinnings.

”I probably will never find adequate words to convince the skeptics that my ascents of this volcano are logical or even worthwhile,” Stockton writes. ”More importantly, I have no interest in trying. All I can say is that climbing South Sister is a vital ritual in my life, and is an integral part of my raison d’etre. Criticize it, if you like, question it if you must, but it is something I will continue to do for as long as I have the strength. Because it is there. And because it sets me apart.”

Stockton is a climber and a medical transcriptionist. He lives in Bend with his wife, Kathryn, and son, Brandon.

”South Sister” is available at the Book Barn, the Central Oregon Welcome Center, Paulina Springs Book Company in Sisters, Mountain Supply and at www.traditionalmountaineering.org. It retails for $6.